Hepatitis B virus (HBV) affects 240 million chronic carriers globally and is linked to ˜800,000 deaths annually from complications including liver cancer and cirrhosis.
Current HBV antiviral therapeutics target the late stage replicative phase by inhibiting viral polymerase/reverse transcriptase (Pol/RT) when viral load has risen significantly, limiting their effectiveness for viral clearance. Targeting early stage viral replication has not been feasible due to a lack of understanding of the precise host factors that drive viral replication.
Accordingly, there is a need to elucidate the fundamental molecular mechanism and associated factors underlying HBV replication. The identification of such factors will allow for the development of novel HBV intervention approaches as well as therapeutics for treating HBV infections and associated conditions or diseases.